There's potential for some new aura traits

[Hot Boy.7138]

When playing in groups, mirage sword ambush has very high uptime for auras because of all the ground effects from all the other classes. It would be nice if there were some traits that could manipulate those auras to make it more powerful versions and/or give unique effects for having an aura. Right now they are easily ignored and just visual clutter that doesn't have any great benefit. Introduce some new aura traits for mesmer. Seems like a good time to add something fresh to mesmer. I for one would love an aura build on mirage if it hits hard, has cool effects, and is fun to play.

[Fueki.4753]

I'd rather not have Mesmer being stuffed with Auras.It's already annoying that I can't play Elementalist anymore without being force-fed Aura traits.

[Taril.8619]

Aura traits for Mesmer seem a bit out of place.

Given that the only Fields they can make themselves, is Ethereal. Meaning they 100% rely on other players to provide other fields, which is a poor thing to put traits in for that are only functional if you're playing with other people AND they put down fields.

Aura traits can make sense for Elementalist and Scrapper because they can create several different field types (Scrapper can create all fields bar Ethereal and Dark, Elementalist can make Fire, Ice, Water and Lightning fields) with Elementalist also having skills that literally just apply Auras allowing them to apply up to 2 different Aura types depending on their weapon set up (Staff can create Magnetic Aura, MH Dagger can create Shocking Aura, OH Dagger can create Frost Aura, Focus can create Fiery Aura, Warhorn can create Magnetic Aura) in addition to having Utility skills that can provide auras (Conjured Earth Shield can apply Magnetic Aura, Aftershock provides Magnetic Aura, Feel the Burn provides Fiery Aura and Flash Freeze provides Frost Aura) as well as the Tempest traits that provide Auras (Unstable Conduit and Elemental Bastion)

In comparison... Mesmer really has no synergy with auras with only natural access to Chaos Aura and 3 skills that provides a different field (Well of Eternity and Temporal Veil for Light field and Gravity Well for Dark field)

In addition to this lack of fields, they also don't have particularly high synergy with proccing fields to get Auras. There's what? Staff 2, Torch 4, Sword 5, Axe 3, Sword 3 and Sword Ambush. Basically with just Sword/Sword Mirage having any real amount of combo potential and just via Leaps (So self only, rather than Blasts which provide to allies in an AoE)

Which if you compare to classes like Thief whom has Dagger 2 (Spammable Leap finisher), Staff 5 (Spammable Leap finisher), Shortbow 2 (Spammable Blast finisher) and Rifle 4 (Spammable Leap finisher). Or Ranger with GS3, Sword 2 (Can be refreshed with Sword 3), Warhorn 5, Staff 3, Dagger 3, Merged Birb F1, Merged Wolf F1 + F2, Merged Drake F2, Merged Porcine F2 and Merged Ferocious pet F3. Whom have more plentiful ways to combo with fields to gain Auras with a number of different build set ups.

[Hot Boy.7138]

@Taril.8619 said:Aura traits for Mesmer seem a bit out of place.

Given that the only Fields they can make themselves, is Ethereal. Meaning they 100% rely on other players to provide other fields, which is a poor thing to put traits in for that are only functional if you're playing with other people AND they put down fields.

Aura traits can make sense for Elementalist and Scrapper because they can create several different field types (Scrapper can create all fields bar Ethereal and Dark, Elementalist can make Fire, Ice, Water and Lightning fields) with Elementalist also having skills that literally just apply Auras allowing them to apply up to 2 different Aura types depending on their weapon set up (Staff can create Magnetic Aura, MH Dagger can create Shocking Aura, OH Dagger can create Frost Aura, Focus can create Fiery Aura, Warhorn can create Magnetic Aura) in addition to having Utility skills that can provide auras (Conjured Earth Shield can apply Magnetic Aura, Aftershock provides Magnetic Aura, Feel the Burn provides Fiery Aura and Flash Freeze provides Frost Aura) as well as the Tempest traits that provide Auras (Unstable Conduit and Elemental Bastion)

In comparison... Mesmer really has no synergy with auras with only natural access to Chaos Aura and 3 skills that provides a different field (Well of Eternity and Temporal Veil for Light field and Gravity Well for Dark field)

In addition to this lack of fields, they also don't have particularly high synergy with proccing fields to get Auras. There's what? Staff 2, Torch 4, Sword 5, Axe 3, Sword 3 and Sword Ambush. Basically with just Sword/Sword Mirage having any real amount of combo potential and just via Leaps (So self only, rather than Blasts which provide to allies in an AoE)

Which if you compare to classes like Thief whom has Dagger 2 (Spammable Leap finisher), Staff 5 (Spammable Leap finisher), Shortbow 2 (Spammable Blast finisher) and Rifle 4 (Spammable Leap finisher). Or Ranger with GS3, Sword 2 (Can be refreshed with Sword 3), Warhorn 5, Staff 3, Dagger 3, Merged Birb F1, Merged Wolf F1 + F2, Merged Drake F2, Merged Porcine F2 and Merged Ferocious pet F3. Whom have more plentiful ways to combo with fields to gain Auras with a number of different build set ups.

I don't need to my own aura skills. As I stated, i have a very high uptime on auras even without my own aura skills because there are always ground skills, and sword mirage has a lot of leap finishers. Having a lot of leap finishers is reason enough for good synergy with aura traits.

[Taril.8619]

@Hot Boy.7138 said:I don't need to my own aura skills.

You kind of do if you want traits designed around them. You need to be able to consistently get something from your traits irregardless of if you have allies around to provide you with the necessary skills.

@Hot Boy.7138 said:Having a lot of leap finishers is reason enough for good synergy with aura traits.

It really isn't.

Especially when the leap finishers are mostly consigned to a single weapon set of a single build. Outside of Mirage with Sword, Mesmer does not have that many leap finishers.

[Hot Boy.7138]

@Taril.8619 said:

@Hot Boy.7138 said:I don't need to my own aura skills.

You kind of do if you want traits designed around them. You need to be able to consistently get something from your traits irregardless of if you have allies around to provide you with the necessary skills.

@Hot Boy.7138 said:Having a lot of leap finishers is reason enough for good synergy with aura traits.

It really isn't.

Especially when the leap finishers are mostly consigned to a single weapon set of a single build. Outside of Mirage with Sword, Mesmer does not have that many leap finishers.

Most people have separate builds for solo play and for group content. Separate builds for sword, separate builds for scepter, staff, etc. It's fine if there are aura traits that directly benefit sword builds. And it's fine if it's better for group play rather than solo play. If you're running solo, can swap builds. If changing to another weapon set/ gear set up then you can change builds.

[draxynnic.3719]

If the only criteria for being aura-focused is 'has access to leap and/or blast finishers', then that's basically everybody.

In this case, you're talking about an interaction that works specifically with sword mirage. This immediately raises an issue in that sword mirage is generally disfavoured for high-end PvP or WvW since mirage works a lot better with condi, while power usually works better with chrono. So what you're talking about is an edge case.

And if it is something that you'd really only expect to see much play with mirages, then it really should be on the mirage specialisation line. In which case... what does it replace? The grandmasters are all themed around being Mirage Cloak traits. Meanwhile, the adept and master majors are all used in one build or another, so to replace any of those you'd probably be hurting someone else's build for something janky that relies upon the combo fields placed down by others to get any benefit.

Outside of mirage, you'd probably be pretty much looking at staff since that's the only really practical weapon for generating auras on a mesmer... and there's already a trait there that gives you protection on gaining chaos aura. You could possibly buff this to granting you protection regardless of the aura, or granting a boon dependent on the aura (might for fire, regeneration for water, and so on). But that's about as far as I'd go.